Multigender Eastern European Names

Russian Names

Given names

The following names occur in A Dictionary of Period Russian Names by Paul Wickenden of Thanet marked as (m) and also appear marked as (f). In a few cases the names were similar but not identical across assigned gender categories and I have included these with a forward slash, such as Fenia/Fen'ia.

Bela, Belka, Boika, Dobritsa, Dragina, Dragin'ia, Draia, Edviga, Fedorka, Fed'ka, Fenia/Fen'ia, Groza, Ianka, Iona, Itka, Jitka, Kalia, Kasha, Kashka, Kata, Katrusha, Katunia, Kiza/Kizha, Kora, Krasa, Kudra, Kuna, Kunei, Kunka, Liba, Lishka, Liska, Liuba, Luka, Maliuta, Malucha/Malukha, Malusha, Mana, Maniia, Manka, Mira, Moiko, Nedelia, Niksha, Olenka, Oria, Ovtsa, Plakida, Priba, Rado, Rogned, Selianka, Sel'ianka, Sina, Slava, Sobina, Titka, Vekenega, Vera, Vershina, Vitko, Vladka, Vladyka, Voina, Zabela, Zbynek, Zbyshka, Zina, Zinoviia, Znata

Gender Bending Names by Sofya la Rus gives a similar list from the same source, with very slightly different inclusion criteria.

Bynames

A patronymic surname for a man could have been composed of a patronymic in the genitive (possessive) case. Drawing a parallel to English, a patronymic could have been Peterson, and a genitive case patronymic Petersons.

As Wickenden puts it, "In most cases, women used the same types of patronymics as men. However, their bynames had to agree with the gender of the subject, which, in Russian, means that they had to add an "a" on the end (not to be confused with the "genitive a's" used by men)."

This results in a relatively common name construction for men which is spelled the same as another relatively common name construction for women.

To use Wickenden’s examples: someone with the given names Ivan Guba might have had a son he called Vasilii and a daughter he called Ol'ga. Their full names could have been written as Vasilii Ivanova or Vasilii Gubina, and Ol'ga Ivanova or Ol'ga Gubina.

For construction and documentation of bynames please refer to https://heraldry.sca.org/names/paul/zgrammar.html.

Article compiled by Clare Drake based on original research and articles by Sofya la Rus and Paul Wickenden of Thanet.

Other Slavic Names

Article not yet available

Baltic Names

Article not yet available

Hungarian Names

No multigender Romanian names found in the resources available on s-gabriel.org and heraldry.sca.org.

Romanian Names

No multigender Romanian names found in the resources available on s-gabriel.org and heraldry.sca.org.

Greek Names

The Lexicon of Greek Personal Names has compiled over 35,000 ancient Greek personal names, from the 8th century B.C. down to the late Roman Empire. In the guidelines for the assembly of the names into the database, it says:

“Since assigning gender was not part of the original research, the gender has been assigned by a computer program on the basis of name-termination. For most names, this method is reliable, but there are exceptions. In Western Greece, for example, there are masculine names ending in alpha. More significantly, names ending in -ις are usually genuinely ambiguous. Nikopolis, for example, was a name borne by both men and women. If neither the text nor the context supply the gender, the individual is classified as 'ambiguous'.”

This might not be as conclusive as we might like for our purposes, but gives a couple of possibilities.

The following names were classified as ‘ambiguous’, where lists were available for the ‘ambiguous’ classified names:

Αγεισις, Αγεπολις, Αγησιπολις, Αγησις, Αθανις, Αινεισιπολις, Αλκις, Αλυπις, Αμευσοπολις, Αναξιπολις, Ανοσις, Αντιπολις, Αργυρις, Αριστοπολις, Αρχεπολις, Ασυλλις, Βακχις, Βρυασσις, Γαονις, Γοργις, Δαιλις, Δαμασις, Δαμασσις, Δαφνις, Δειμαφις, Δικαιοπολις, Διονυσις, Δοσις, Δυσυρεις, Δωριας, Επιχαρις, Εταρις, Ευπραξις, Εχεπολις, Fρωσις, Ηγησιπολις, Ησις, Ησυχις, Θεαρις, Θεμιστοπολις, Θερσοπολις, Θρασυπολις, Ιασπις, Ισιας, Ισχοπολις, Ιφις, Καλλιπολις, Καλλις, Καμις, Κλειτοπολις, Κλεομειτις, Κλεοννις, Κλεοπολις, Κληνις, Κλησις, Κλητα, Κλητις, Κορητις, Κρανοπολις, Κρατις, Λεοντις, Μαγαδις, Μαθις, Μαις, Μαχαπολις, Μελις, Μενεπολις, Μηνιας, Μητροπολις, Μνασις, Μυρτις, Νεοπολις, Νεωρις, Νικασιπολις, Νικησις, Νικοπολις, Νομεινις, Ξεναρις, Ξενις, Ξεννις, Ξιγας, Ολυμπις, Ορθρις, Παιαν, Πεισις, Πιθις, Πιτθις, Ποσις, Σαγαρις, Σαμιας, Σαωσις, Σικκις, Σωπατρις, Σωσιπολις, Σωσις, Σωτηρις, Ταξις, Τιμοπολις, Υβρις, Φιλις, Φιλουσις, Φυσις, Χαλκις, Χαριτοπολις, Χρυσοθεμις, Χρυσοπολις.

And the database allows for wildcard searches, which allow us to find 3930 names ending in -ις.

Article compiled by Clare Drake based on original work by the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names project at The Stelios Ioannou School for Research in Classical and Byzantine Studies, Oxford.